In the Old Testament, leading up to the miraculous conception of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, there are these many prefigurements of the virginal conception and birth of our Lord
through these miraculous conceptions that take place at various times.
As I say in the Old Testament, there's Abraham and Sarah,
not miraculous in the sense of the virginal conception of Jesus Christ in the womb of our Lady,
but among these couples who were too old to bear children.
There was, again, Abraham and Sarah.
Today we have Manasseh and Hannah, the mother of the parents of Samson.
And we have the annunciation of the Archangel Gabriel to Zechariah, who with his wife Elizabeth will beget.
St. John the Baptist, all of them too old to bear children, too old to bring new life into the world.
And yet in each case, an angel appears or there is this manifestation of God's presence
and they are promised that there will be a child.
And they are all challenged.
All challenged to...
to put their faith in the power of God and not to trust in the power of the flesh or in the power of man.
And they all meet this challenge in different ways.
Abraham, you know, believes, but Sarah is a bit weak in her belief.
If you recall, the angel speaks these words to Abraham and Sarah is listening behind the tent
and ends up laughing when she hears it.
She hears that she's going to conceive a child and she's a little bit embarrassed by the whole thing.
The angel said, why did your wife laugh?
And she says, I didn't laugh.
And he says, yes, you did.
You know, but it all comes to pass in its proper time.
And in a particular way, in today's sacred liturgy, we have these various instances.
The one for the book of Judges, which is the conception of Samson in the womb of Hannah,
who does believe in the power of God.
And there's this strong parallel between this enunciation and conception to Hannah.
And the same to Zechariah.
Both are told that their child should not drink strong drink, for example.
You know, that they are...
They are to be set aside for some prophetic type of role.
But the point here is that there is a response that has to take place.
In the case of Hannah, she wished to be delivered from her barrenness and she prayed for a child.
And so when she was told by the angel that she was to conceive, you know, she immediately believed.
She put her faith in the word of God.
In the case...
In the case of Zechariah, Zechariah wasn't expecting to or hoping for this grace.
It wasn't something that he anticipated by his own prayers.
But it's interesting the circumstances under which this enunciation takes place.
It doesn't, you know, the angel doesn't announce it to Elizabeth.
The angel announces it to the father.
And the father happens to be a priest.
He happens to be, at this particular moment, in a very privileged position.
He's chosen by lots, that is, by divine providence.
Because when the Jews used lots to decide something, they used it as a means of divine providence.
God would speak to them through the lots and tell them who or what is being selected.
And so by virtue of divine providence, Zechariah is chosen to enter into the sanctuary,
which is forbidden.
It's forbidden except for rare circumstances.
If this was the Day of Atonement, he entered into the Holy of Holies,
which is possible.
This is maybe what the scriptures are saying.
This is something that happened once a year on the Day of Atonement.
One priest, once a year, was allowed to enter into the Holy of Holies
and there to offer prayer and sacrifice.
And so this was a privileged position that Zechariah was being placed in.
He was being drawn into the inner sanctuary of God's presence.
And it was there that the angel of the Lord manifests himself to Zechariah.
So this is a tremendous grace that he is receiving.
Tremendous grace.
A privileged grace.
He's in a privileged position, a privileged place,
a time and a place in which God is particularly present.
And this grace of...
of the Conceptionist, John the Baptist,
is announced to him.
And his response, of course, is defective.
And in the scriptures,
because we'll read about the Annunciation tomorrow,
the Annunciation of the angel Gabriel to Our Lady,
so the scriptures, and particularly the liturgy,
are comparing and contrasting these various responses.
And the response of Zechariah
is, you could say, parallel,
but antithetical to that of the Blessed Virgin.
Because Zechariah has a question for the angel,
just like Our Lady does.
And the questions are similar,
but not identical.
He says,
How can I know this?
For I am an old man,
and my wife is advanced in years.
So Zechariah is questioning the possibility.
He's questioning whether this can happen
at all.
Because, you know,
it's just not possible.
He and his wife cannot conceive a child
from a natural point of view.
Our Lady's question is similar,
but not identical.
It's radically different in a sense.
The grammar is similar.
Our Lady says,
How shall this be since I know not man?
And Our Lady is not
questioning the possibility
of the miracle.
But she wants to understand
what is the will of God in her regard.
Because she had made,
as tradition tells us,
a vow of virginity.
And so she is asking a question of discernment,
trying to discern the Spirit
as to whether or not this
is a grace from God
or from the evil one.
But Zechariah is not asking that question.
Zechariah is doubting the possibility
that this miracle can take place.
Therefore he is struck dumb.
Because he did not hear well,
because he did not listen,
and put what he heard into practice,
he is unable to proclaim his fiat.
You know, after he,
he rejects this grace,
fails to respond to it,
he is struck dumb.
And he has to pass through a period of penance,
which we will see,
you know, lifted from him
on Christmas Eve
when he proclaims the Benedictus
in praise of God.
Because he names the child
as the angel tells him to.
So all of this is an opportunity
for us to reflect upon our own faith
and the graces that God gives to us.
And the faith and hope that we have
in the Word of God
and the way in which we live
in the light of that faith.
Because we are challenged in our daily life
to believe in God's providence
or not.
To believe in the power of God
or not to believe in it.
To act as though God is present in our life
or to succumb to hopelessness
and discouragement
or, you know,
to say that we believe
but then act like we don't.
This is what we do, of course, when we sin.
Whenever we sin, you know,
we, in an implicit way,
you know, are lacking in faith.
It's not even an implicit way.
I mean, we don't deny the faith per se,
but we act as though we do.
And so during this last period of Advent
before Christmas,
we have this opportunity to do penance
for our lack of faith
and to try to lock ourselves in
to the heart and mind
and the spirit and dispositions
of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Amen.
You know, Our Lady,
in this Advent moment,
lives in anticipation liturgically.
We reflect on Our Lady's anticipation
of the birth of Jesus Christ.
She is the temple of the Holy Spirit
and the tabernacle of the Most High.
And she is this because of her great faith,
because of her consent,
her assent to God's Word
and to her
perpetual living
in the light of that Word.
So we ask that we might have her heart,
her dispositions,
her thoughts and feelings,
you know, everything that belongs to the Lady,
to the Blessed Virgin,
is what we want to have
so that we might respond
to the graces that God gives us
with complete generosity
and immediacy.
You know, because when God visits us,
when God comes to us
and announces to us
His will,
that is an opportunity of grace.
It's an opportunity of grace.
But it's transient.
It comes and then it passes.
We either accept it
and allow it to bear fruit in our lives
or we let it pass us by
and we lose it
and we offend God.
So we wish to be truly devout like Our Lady
so that when the Spirit comes to us
we respond with complete generosity.
We can also remember
and this is very important,
that God is patient.
God did punish Zechariah
but it was not a kind of vindictive type of punishment.
It was a remedial one.
God gave him the medicine that he needed
so that he could be delivered from his lack of faith.
God is patient
and God teaches us
to grow in our faith
and to respond more generously.
So let us humble ourselves,
before the Lord when we fail
and have confidence in His mercy and grace
so that we can become more and more
like the Blessed Mother
and rejoice fully
when Jesus comes to us at Christmas.
Praised be Jesus and Mary.